Saturday, December 31, 2011

Here's a popular and low-brow (but fun) French expression from days gone by--and inspired by the late 19th century liberation of women from their tight corsets and cumbersome skirts so they could pedal bicycles: Je ne te demande pas si ta grand-mère fait du vélo. (I don't ask you if your grandmother rides a bike; i.e., I haven't asked your advice, mind your own business.)

A delightful réplique to quell indiscreet questions, the expression is used as a refrain in a 1925 hit opéretteTrois Jeunes Filles Nues,Est-ce que je te demande.

Vocabularyun vélo: a bike; the word is short for vélocipèdeune grand-mère: a grandmotherdemander: to askune bicyclette: a bicycleune réplique: a retortune opérette: a musical genre mixing comedy, song and dance

Friday, December 30, 2011

Dream your life in color, it's the secret to happiness. -- Walt Disney

Walt Disney, an American of Irish extraction, has made his way onto this blog because his surname is an anglicization of the French Norman name d'Isigny. According to Wikipedia a branch of the d'Isigny family emigrated to Ireland in the 17th century. Disney's grandfather would leave Ireland for America in 1834 to establish his family there. Later Walt would be born in Chicago in 1901.

Butter by the way: One of the three best butters produced in France is the beurre d'Isigny, the other two being the beurre Charentes-Poitou and the beurre Deux-Sevres. All three have been accorded the prestigious A.O.C. label--appellation d'origine contrôlée, which is an official and strict state guarantee of a food product's origin and quality; i.e. that it comes from a specific terroir or country area, and was produced and conditioned with a particular and traditional savoir-faire.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

On the theatrical side of the urban revolution and in all its piney splendor is this French mobile telephone relay antenna masquerading as a conifer. In recent years, portable telephone operators with a taste for ecological paradox and an audacious sense of mise-en-scène have planted the metal and plastic supercheries here and there to dissimulate hideous rods and wires. Is it the perception or the reception that counts?

Curiously, this tree that hides the forest is in the town of Villepreux, on the plaine de Versailles--a plain which is almost on the axis of the perspective of the Grand Canal of the Château de Versailles, some 12 km away. Louis XIV, who had a special liking for elaborate baroque theatre decor and machinery, would have undoubtedly approved of the camouflage.

Vocabularyune antenne arborisée: an antenna dissimulated as a treeêtre: to beparaître: to appearune mise en scène: a stage settingune supercherie: a deception, a fakepar ici et par là: here and there

Monday, December 26, 2011

One-thousand-five-hundred letters and three centuries later.Marie de Rabutin-Chantal (1626-1696) who would marry and become the Marquise de Sévigné, a revered woman of letters of the Grand Siècle, had a fashionable passion for chocolate. With a fine mind and sense of humor, she had also what the French call de l'esprit. Her witty epistolary works, occasioned by the moving away of her beloved daughter and years of correspondence with her, have important literary and historic value.

Chocolate was introduced to the royal court in France in 1643 when Louis XIV's Spanish fiancée, Marie-Thérèse, gave some to him as an engagement gift; by 1650 a chocolate craze had taken hold among French aristocrats. (Cortèz had initially brought chocolate to Spain in 1528 from the New World.)

In 1898 a chocolatier created the brand Marquise de Sévigné, one of the principal haut de gamme chocolates since. Today simply mentioning "la Marquise" is enough to conjure up visions of cocoa...

VocabularyLe Grand Siècle: during the reign of Louis XIV (1638-1715); the apogee of French classicisml'esprit: the spirit, soul, mindavoir de l'esprit: to be wittyavoir l'esprit vif: to be quick-wittedépistolaire: epistolary; that which pertains to an exchange of lettersun chocolatier: a chocolate makerhaut de gamme: high end

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Druids believed holly was sacred and eternal, ancient Romans thought holly protected against maledictions and planted it near their houses, and superstitious English maintained that whoever in a couple brought the first sprigs of Christmas holly indoors would be the one who wore the pants in the family for the coming year.

In France, where the Roman traditions left their mark, it was once the custom to hang a holly branch on the doors of stables and houses on Christmas Eve to guard against harm. Still today some French observe the custom of not bringing holly into the house until December 24 lest it bring bad luck. (I might add that there is a practical side to that habit, considering how painfully prickly dried-up holly is.)

Another curiosity is that in olden days French wagon drivers would even insert a small piece of holly wood into their new wagon's assembly to protect against accidents.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

When the GPS stopped working in the Dordorgne backwoods and we unexpectedly found ourselves in a village with the unlikely name of St. Pompon, there was no question but to stop to take a souvenir photo to show the family cat. Once home we learned that a local seigneur upon his return from a crusade in the 13th centurydecided to name his village for Saint Pomponius, a sixth-century Neapolitan bishop.

Traditionalists in France still take a dim view of giving pets Christian names, like Georges, Pierre or Benoît. That's why we had thought we were safe when we started calling this fellow Pompon...

Vocabularydésapprouver: to disapprove of, to take a dim view ofun seigneur: a noblemanune croisade: a crusade

In the Occitan dialect, Saint-Pompon is said Sent Plemponh. Plen ponh is translated to French as à pleines poignées...i.e., handfuls!

Monday, December 19, 2011

An anonymous French wag wrote: There are four ages in the life of a man--the one where he believes in Santa Claus; the one where he no longer believes in Santa Claus; the one where he is Santa Claus; and the one where he looks like Santa Claus.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Usually it's the religious icons that find their places in architectural recesses here, but in the south of France it's not surprising to see a santonprovençal, this one a shepherd, in a small alcove above the front door.

Santons de Provence are brightly painted clay figurines used to create crèches de Noël. Part of their charm of these nativity scenes is that there are not only the holy principals, but also figurines representing all of the tradesof a provençal village, from miller to basket weaver. (My own collection includes the mayor of the village and a bohemian!)

A bit of history

Franciscan monks introduced enacting living nativity scenes at Midnight Mass to Provence in the 13th century. When these were prohibited during the 18th-century French revolution, faithful individuals of Marseilles took to fabricating their own nativity scenes, inviting others to admire them in their homes. The practice became widespread, giving birth to the small industry of modeling santons.

Every year during the month of December a fair is held in Marseilles, the historic capital of santons, to display and sell works of France's forty leading santonniers.

Vocabularyun santon: a figurine or small personage coming from the word santoun, little saintun santonnier: a maker of santonsune crèche: a model of the the scene representing the birth of Jesus, displayed in homes or public places at Christmas, a nativity sceneProvence: former province of southeastern France on the Mediterranean coast, east of the Rhone Riverune niche: a shallow recess, often used to display a statue or ornamentun berger: a shepherdun métier: a trade or profession

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Effigies of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, at the Basilique de Saint-Denis, necropolis of the kings of France. It seems like trivia today, but after diplomatic efforts of Benjamin Franklin, it was on December 17, 1777 that Louis XVI first recognized the independence of the American colonies from the British state. This lead to a friendly commercial alliance, then to France giving financial and important naval support to the colonies against the British.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

So cosy at home, there's no need to go out. The French use the word cocooning, but have other ways to say it, too. In fact the word originally comes from the medieval Provençal language where coucoun meant eggshell.

Vocabulary

le coconnage or le couconage: the formation of cocoons; the feeling that one is so well at home that one hardly needs to go out except for vital necessities

un cocon: a silky case spun by insect larvae; something that envelops or surrounds, in a protective or comforting way

cocooner: to stay at home

cocooning: staying at home

casanier: stay-at-home, sedentary as an adjective; homebody, as a noun

Quand on décore un sapin de Noël, on a toujours l'impression qu'il nous faudrait une guirlande de plus. When decorating the Christmas tree, we always have the impression that it needs one more garland.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

La Nature sculpted by Niccolo Pericoli, dit Tribolo (circa 1500-1550). The French king François I commissioned the statue in 1529 to serve as a support for a vase. Bella maniera.

Why oh, why, does the beauty of this pristine statue remind me of the old television jingle "Calgon, take me away...?" My commonplace and misplaced commercial reference aside, the sculpture in all its exaggeration is just one among many of the splendors of the Château de Fontainebleau.

Friday, December 9, 2011

When Repetto, the world reference in danse shoes since 1947, announced yesterday that it was getting into the perfume business and would introduce a powdery fresh parfum, the first thought that came to our minds was this would surely be an "odeur-rat."

Ageless photo made several years ago of children's tutus and ballet shoes in the Repetto store window, near the Opéra Garnier, Paris. Courtesy of Dr. Carol E. Cass

Vocabularyun petit rat de l'opéra: a young ballet pupilun jeune élève danseur de l'opéra:idemune odeur: a smellun rat: a ratl'odorat: the sense of smellun jeu de mots: a play on words; punun parfum: a perfume

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Peel 2 ripe persimmons and cut into pieces. Make a purée with fruit and 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Add 1 cup of cream and whip until mixture forms a mousse. Spoon into dessert bowls or verrines and chill 3 to 4 hours before serving. Sprinkle with cinnamon powder and/or crushed almonds.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

We were lucky to happen upon the passage of the schooner, La Cancalaise, through the rocky strait between la Pointe du Grouin and l'Île des Landes, which forms the outer limit of the Baie du Mont-Saint- Michel. The craft is a replica of "La Perle," one of the powerful and agile fishing boats, or bisquines, that typically navigated around the bay and the Côte d'Emeraude from the 1800's to the early 1940's.

The Ile des Landes is a continental island isolated from the Brittany mainland by virtue of the water level; just beyond it is the starting point for the legendary Route du Rhum, a solo translatlantic 3,510 mile race between Saint-Malo and Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe. The break-neck speed sailing event is held every four years during the month of November. The next will be in 2014.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

To accentuate landscape compositions and to control volumes, the French have resorted to the taille architecturée of ornamental trees for centuries. Above is an example of the very regular and controlled taille à rideau in an allée in the park of the Château de Versailles. This laborious pruning technique, so typical of classic French gardens, today is done with large motorized circular blades mounted on mechanical lifts. Lines of rectangular trees like these are thus seen more and more in urban landscapes where trees are fitted in to coexist with traffic and utilities. So much for the practical side of the tree.

If nothing else, don't miss a virtual visit of this enchanting suspended garden with its 150,000 meticulously clipped boxwoods, 6 km of winding shaded footpaths and one of the most spectacular views of the Dordogne River Valley, 130 meters below. Click here.

Friday, November 25, 2011

In the officialdom of the French language, cybercarnet, rather than blogue for blog or Web log, is the desired term to use; just as carnettiste is what preservationists of the language exact as a translation of blogger, rather than the Frenchified blogueur or bloguiste. Need I mention the official term courriel? Its popular shorthand alternative, mél (imagine "mail" said with a marked French accent), however, is what most people in these parts calls an e-mail.

The French take protection and preservation of their language seriously, so seriously that a commission specialized in terminology and neologisms maintains an inventory of and oversees the introduction of new words officially admitted into the language. Terms the commission decides to be the French equivalents to new words and phrases coming from foreign languages are required to be used, rather than any other, in all documents emanating from state services and public institutions. See articles 7 and 11 of Decret no 96-602 du 3 juillet 1996.

Watching sighthound lure-coursing is not entry level tourism, but it is a fun Sunday morning distraction and a way to take in some fresh country air, or as they say in France, s'aérer-- an important preoccupation of French city dwellers.

The lure runs along low-lying cables set up in an open field and controlled by a system of pulleys to simulate a fleeing hare. The contests are between two dogs which are judged for their speed, strength, agility and capture of the lure. This practice event took place near Mantes-la-Jolie, in the Yvelines department.

Although I don't usually buy Beaujolais Nouveau(see Lip Service), this year's batch has turned out remarkably well. So we tried another bottle, chosen also for its pretty label. In both wines, strawberry and banana notes overrode any tendency toward an acid-green taste.

Lists of medicinal properties claimed for plants and herbs never cease to amaze. The one for rhubarbe is no exception. Originating in Asia and introduced to Europe by Marco Polo, rhubarb has been serving as a multi-purpose remedy for centuries. Today it'sthe plant most singularly associated with Picardie, a region in northern France comprised of the Aisne, the Oise and the Somme administrative departments. As an oddly refreshing summery pétillant fruit drink (Nectare de Rhubarbe has less than 1 % alcohol) or as a unusual warming winter tea, its liquid form has one of the most peculiar flavors your papilles will probably ever encounter. Sample or swill, according to your case...